Boycott Sinclair
In a previous post (The Ugly Remaining Days) I had briefly mentioned the media corporation Sinclair Broadcasting Group that is forcing all its affiliates to air a negative documentary about John Kerry just prior to the election. Well, it turns out that this had got quite a few people hot under the collar.
There is a boycott rising up of advertisers on the Sinclair television stations and it is already having an effect as several advertisers have pulled their commercials. This has caused Wall Street to downgrade Sinclair stock and it has dropped costing Sinclair millions already.
You have to understand how right wing Sinclair is. They make campaign contributions and 97% of those are to Republicans. Sinclair has a vested interest in trying to get more media consolidation allowed by Congress and the FCC.
"Its presence in 39 markets accounts for 24 percent of the national TV audience. According to the Center for Public Integrity, Sinclair owns or operates two stations, called "duopolies," in more markets (20) than any other media company in the country. The company, which reported 2003 revenues of $738 million, also owns or operates more television stations (62) than any media company."
This was the same media corporation that refused to broadcast Nightline when the show read the names of Amricans who had died in Iraq. Sinclair called it partisan politics, but somehow does't seem to think it is partisan to force the broadcast of the Kerry so-called documentary.
Sinclair is a good example of the problems of media consolidation. By owning so many local TV outlets they have the ability to order programming that the local outlet may not even want to broadcast. Local control is upsurped by the corporate behemoth.
The full story... Link
There is a boycott rising up of advertisers on the Sinclair television stations and it is already having an effect as several advertisers have pulled their commercials. This has caused Wall Street to downgrade Sinclair stock and it has dropped costing Sinclair millions already.
You have to understand how right wing Sinclair is. They make campaign contributions and 97% of those are to Republicans. Sinclair has a vested interest in trying to get more media consolidation allowed by Congress and the FCC.
"Its presence in 39 markets accounts for 24 percent of the national TV audience. According to the Center for Public Integrity, Sinclair owns or operates two stations, called "duopolies," in more markets (20) than any other media company in the country. The company, which reported 2003 revenues of $738 million, also owns or operates more television stations (62) than any media company."
This was the same media corporation that refused to broadcast Nightline when the show read the names of Amricans who had died in Iraq. Sinclair called it partisan politics, but somehow does't seem to think it is partisan to force the broadcast of the Kerry so-called documentary.
Sinclair is a good example of the problems of media consolidation. By owning so many local TV outlets they have the ability to order programming that the local outlet may not even want to broadcast. Local control is upsurped by the corporate behemoth.
The full story... Link
posted by jon at 11:30 AM
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